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On this young shell, it looks as though the flutes have been broken off recently and all at around the same time. What happened? Did it roll around in the surge? Did a clever octopus bang it on the rocks so it could get a better grip? I doubt it, but you never know. It seems octopus have a hard time with T. squamosa. Perhaps the flutes interfere with the octopus' ability to get a good enough sucker grip to pry the clam open. We once found a pile of empty T. maxima shells in front of an octopus den, mixed in with these was a single still living small T. squamosa about the same size as the eaten T. maxima. It seemed the octopus collected the T. squamosa with the other clams and brought it back to its den, but then couldn't get it open. All speculation, of course, but it would be interesting to try to test it.